Russia still reliant on Iranian drone supplies despite increased domestic production

He said this on Espreso TV.

"This isn't the first time the Russians have upgraded or changed the warheads on Shahed UAVs. We're talking about the sixth or seventh version of the warhead used in the Russian-modified Shaheds. Now the enemy has started using mixed-configuration Shaheds with two warheads. One of them is Russian-made and combines cumulative, high-explosive, fragmentation, and incendiary effects. Basically, the Russians have stuffed everything they could into one warhead. Earlier, they had already used Shaheds with combined warheads, specifically incendiary ones, but those weighed 50 kg. Now, they've increased the weight to 90 kg. That doesn’t mean every Shahed will carry this version, the enemy will mix things up," Katkov said.

According to him, Russia keeps modifying UAV warheads to cause maximum casualties among civilians.

"The second 90 kg warhead is Iranian-made. It doesn't have an incendiary component, but it is high-explosive and cumulative. And the fact that they're still using Iranian warheads clearly shows that even though Russia has scaled up production at two plants, it still depends on supplies from Iran. As for the threat to civilians, nothing has changed. The Russians continue to launch Shaheds with combined warheads that create thermobaric effects and also use fragmentation. The goal of these combined warheads is to kill as many people as possible," he concluded.